The filing deadline to run for elected office in New Jersey is on April 5, 2021. In New Jersey, prospective candidates may file for the following offices: • Governor • Lieutenant Governor • New Jersey State Senate (all 40 seats) • New Jersey General Assembly (all 80 seats) Ballotpedia is also covering local elections in…
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) announced on March 15 that he would nominate Rachel Wainer Apter to the New Jersey Supreme Court. She will replace Justice Jaynee LaVecchia, who is retiring on Aug. 31. Wainer Apter has served as a director with the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, a counsel to the New…
Arizona Supreme Court Justice Andrew Gould has scheduled his retirement for April 1, 2021. Gould’s replacement will be Arizona Governor Doug Ducey’s (R) sixth nominee to the seven-member supreme court. Under Arizona law, justices on the Arizona Supreme Court are selected through the assisted appointment method for six-year renewable terms. Following the initial appointment, judges…
New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Jaynee LaVecchia scheduled her retirement for August 31, 2021. LaVecchia’s replacement will be Governor Phil Murphy’s (D) second nominee to the seven-member supreme court. Under New Jersey law, when a vacancy occurs, justices of the New Jersey Supreme Court are nominated by the governor. One week after the public notice…
The Michigan-Ohio method of judicial selection manifests the most signs of partisanship out of any of the eight methods used across state supreme courts, according to Ballotpedia’s recently-published study on state supreme courts. There are three broad categories of state supreme court selection: Assisted Appointment, Direct Appointment, and Election. Within these three broad categories, there…
Direct legislative appointment yields the lowest average partisan confidence score for state supreme court justices of any method, according to the Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship study. The Michigan-Ohio method produced the highest average partisan confidence score of 11 for all justices, while the direct legislative appointment method produced an average partisan confidence score of 5…
Former Attorney General Gordon MacDonald was sworn in to the New Hampshire Supreme Court on March 4. He was nominated by Gov. Chris Sununu (R) on Jan. 7 to succeed Robert Lynn, and the New Hampshire Executive Council voted 4-1 to confirm his nomination on Jan. 22. All four Republican members of the executive council…
A recent Ballotpedia study on state supreme courts revealed that of the seven justices on the New Jersey Supreme Court as of June 2020: Two justices had some level of affiliation with the Democratic party Four justices had a Republican affiliation One justice had an indeterminate partisan affiliation. In “Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship”, we gathered…
After a state Supreme Court ruling last fall, North Dakota Rep. Jeff Delzer (R) remains in office at the start of the legislative session following a primary defeat in 2020. In North Dakota, each of the state’s 47 districts elects two representatives to the state House. Challengers David Andahl and Dave Nehring defeated Delzer in…
Delaware is the only state in the country with a constitutional requirement mandating partisan balance on the state supreme court. In 1851, Delaware amended its constitution to include: “three of the five Justices of the Supreme Court in office at the same time, shall be of one major political party, and two of said Justices…